The subgenre of kung fu action film has had a lot of strange variants over the years.  Whether it’s the historical fiction of Once Upon A Time In China or the mock-drunken antics of Jackie Chan in the various Drunken Masters, or even the strange Mystery Science Theatre-esque strangeness of Kung Pow: Enter The Fist.

But possibly even more bizarre than even Steve Oedekerk’s tongue-laden vision of kung fu is the anthropomorphic animal concept advanced by Kung Fu Panda.

Featuring Jack Black as a fat, lazy fanboy panda working in a noodle shop, Kung Fu Panda offers up the Valley of Peace in the midst of a problem.  Seems one of the greatest kung fu masters the valley has ever known has just broken out of the deep mountain prison he’s been stored in and he’s on his way back to the valley for revenge against one of the kung fu masters still living there—his original teacher.  Left with little option, as the master in question is still powerful, but aging and possibly no longer a match for the fearsome rogue master, the search begins for the legendary Dragon Warrior, a supreme kung fu master who will restore peace to the valley.  But the Dragon Warrior is, not surprisingly, not exactly who we expect it to be.

They sort of gave that particular chunk of the plot away in the title itself—it’s Kung Fu Panda, for crying out loud.  If the Panda doesn’t learn Kung Fu at some point the title really is sort of nonsense, now isn’t it?  But, okay—we’re not exactly here for that sort of thing.  Most of us are here to watch Jack Black do voice acting for a tubby lazy fanboy panda, because this is the kind of thing that Jack Black’s been playing all along, except not quite so hairy.

Seriously—if you stop and think about it there’s not much difference between the panda and Dewey Finn and JB from Tenacious D. Sure, the panda will never pick up a guitar, but kung fu is this panda’s guitar, and Black puts the same basic spirit behind the panda’s love as he did into his guitarist characters’ love.

Meanwhile, the plot itself is at least fairly entertaining, and for those who shy away from animated fare believing it “just for kids” are missing out on a pretty surprising treat.  If it weren’t for the animated animals, this might well have been a fairly solid kung fu picture.  Frankly, we don’t get a whole lot of those these days—the last one I remember was Kung Fu Hustle, and that was four years ago this April.

It’s nice to get some new kung fu that we don’t have to import; the subgenre is sorely underserved, and in this days of more-of-the-same you’d think more places would go back to the kung fu epic to get some fast cash.  The lack of titles lately is deeply surprising, but one thing is true.  Kung Fu Panda was not half bad, and definitely worth a couple hours to see.